The Charnel Rose: A Symphony Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Conrad Potter Aiken

The Charnel Rose: A Symphony Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

About The Charnel Rose: A Symphony

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She rose in moonlight and stood confronting sea	A
With her bare arms uplifted	B
And lifted her voice in the silence foolishly	A
And her face was small and her voice was small	C
'O moon ' she cried 'I think how you must tire	D
Forever circling earth so silently	A
Earth who is dark and makes you no reply '	E
She only heard the little waves rush and fall	C
And saw the moon go quietly down the sky	F
	-
Like a white figurehead in the seafaring wind	G
She stood in the moonlight	H
And heard her voice cry ghostly and thinned	I
Over the seethe of foam	J
Saying 'O numberless waters I think it strange	K
How you can always shadow her face and change	K
And yet never weary of her having no ease '	-
But the sea said nothing no word at all	C
Unquietly as in sleep she saw it rise and fall	C
And the moon spread a net of silver over the foam	J
	-
She lifted her hands and let them fall again	L
Impatient of the silence And in despair	M
Hopeless of final answer against her pain	N
She said to the stealthy air	M
'O air far traveller who from the stars are blown	O
Float pollen of suns you are an unseen sea	A
Lifting and bearing the words eternally	A
O air do you not weary of your task '	-
She stood in the silence frightened and alone	O
And heard her syllables ask and ask	P
	-
And then as she walked in the moonlight so alone	O
Lost and small in a soulless sea	A
Hearing no voice make answer to her own	O
From that infinity	A
Suddenly she was aware of a low whisper	D
A dreadful heartless sound and she stood still	Q
There in the beach grass on a sandy hill	Q
And heard the stars making a ghostly whisper	D
And the soulless whisper of sun and moon and tree	A
And the sea rising and falling with a blind moan	O
	-
And as she faded into the night	H
A glimmer of white	H
With her arms uplifted and her face bowed down	R
Sinking again into the sleep of sands	S
The sea sands white and brown	R
Or among the sea grass rustling as one more blade	T
Pushing before her face her cinquefoil hands	S
Or sliding stealthy as foam into the sea	A
With a slow seethe and whisper	D
	-
Too late to find her yet not too late to see	A
Came he who sought forever unsatisfied	U
And saw her enter and shut the darkness	V
Desired and swift	W
And caught at the rays of the moon yet found but darkness	V
Caught at the flash of his feet to fill his hands	S
With the sleepy pour of sands	S
	-
'O moon ' he said 'was it you I followed	X
You who put silver madness into my eyes '	-
But he only heard in the dark a stifled laughter	D
And the rattle of dead leaves blowing	Y
'O wind ' he said 'was it you I followed	X
Your hand I felt against my face '	-
But he only heard in the dark a stifled laughter	D
And shadows crept past him with furtive pace	Z
Breathing night upon him and one by one	A2
The ghosts of leaves flew past him seeking the sun	A2
	-
And a silent star slipped golden down the darkness	V
Down the great wall leaving no trace in the sky	F
And years went with it and worlds And he dreamed still	Q
Of a fleeter shadow among the shadows running	Y
Foam into foam without a gesture or cry	F
Leaving him there alone on a lonely hill	Q
	-
I Part	B2
	-
Evening in the twilight town	R
One by one the stars stepped down	R
Each to assume his destined place	Z
And there he saw the destined face	Z
	-
Her eyes were void here eyes were deep	C2
She came like one who moved in sleep	C2
And when she looked across the night	H
Beneath among those points of light	H
Into his heart she shot a pang	D2
As if a voice within him sang	D2
Sang and was silent Down the street	E2
And lost in darkness fled the feet	E2
Ambiguous the street lamp's gleam	F2
Mocked at her eyes and then the dream	F2
From shuttered window shadowed hall	C
Chuckled beyond a lampless wall	C
	-
Among the crowding lights he went	G2
Where faces massed like lillies blent	G2
And this time plucked and made his own	O
Above snarled music's undertone	O
Breathing the perfume of her hair	M
He touched her arm but suddenly there	M
As in a dance of shadows fleeing	Y
His eyes were shut for fear of seeing	Y
He watched red roses dropt apart	G2
Each to disclose a charnel heart	G2
	-
Ghostly with powder in the night	G2
Her hand upon his arm was white	G2
Her gown was light and lightly blew	H2
A gauze of flame it burned him through	H2
Under the singing lamp she stood	G2
And smiled in subtly fugitive mood	G2
From depth to depth of wingless skies	I2
Withdrawing batlike down her eyes	I2
And in his heart an echo came	J2
Of quick dust quaking under flame	J2
	-
Pale walls enclosed them One light shed	G2
A yellow flicker across the bed	G2
Loud steps rang through the street and then	L
The hush of night grew deep again	L
Two shadows on the wall made one	A2
What human walls were here flung down	R
The light extinguished as in pain	N
The weak light dying in the brain	N
Green leaves pushed up through yielding air	M
Greedy for life she loosed her hair	M
With conscious and indifferent hands	S
High on his cliff above hard sands	S
He saw the moonlit ocean come	K2
In ever inward rings of foam	J
Heard them break to shoot and seethe	L2
Ever inward far beneath	M2
The ringed horizon rhythmic coming	Y
And in the moonlight silent foaming	Y
But the dream changed thick minutes dripped	G2
Between his fingers a fleet light slipped	G2
Was gone was lost	G2
And on the sand or in his brain	N
He saw red roses fall again	L
Rose wreathed skeletons advanced	G2
And clumsily lifted foot and danced	G2
And he saw the roses drop apart	G2
Each to disclose a charnel heart	G2
	-
Whose were these loathed and empty eyes	I2
Who falling in these wingless skies	I2
This was not she he rose withdrew	H2
One shadow on the wall made two	H2
The human walls stood up again	L
Far in the night or in his brain	N
He heard her whisper felt her pass	N2
Shadow of spirit over glass	N2
	-
I Part	G2
	-
And a silent star slipped golden down the darkness	V
Taking his life with it like a little cloud	G2
Consumed in fire and speed diffused in darkness	V
Tangled and caught together the days the years	O2
His voice his lifted hands	S
Were ravelled and sped where by the sea he bowed	G2
And dreamed of the foam that crept back into the sea	A
And the wandering leaves that crept back into the tree	A
	-
I Part	G2
	-
Roses he thought were kin to her	D
Pure text of dust and learning these	P2
He might more surely win to her	D
Speak her own tongue to pledge and please	P2
What vernal kinship then was this	Q2
That spoke and perished in a breath	R2
In leaves she was near enough to kiss	Q2
And yet impalpable as death	R2
Spading dark earth he tore apart	G2
Exquisite roots she fled from him	S2
Her stigma in the crocus heart	G2
Probed for delicately would swim	S2
Lazily faint away on air	M
Not to be caught or held she fled	G2
Before him wavering everywhere	M
A summer's secret behind he shed	G2
Music He found it under earth	T2
Quick veins of fire he heard her sing	Y
Upward it broke a springing mirth	T2
A fugitive and amazing thing	Y
It flashed before his crazy feet	G2
He danced upon it it would not stay	G2
His hands against its brightness beat	G2
But still it broke in light away	G2
O bird he cried if bird you are	U2
Keep still those frantic wings a while	V2
Thus dancing for the evening star	U2
In hope to capture it by guile	V2
	-
I Part	G2
	-
The moon rose and the moon set	G2
And the stars rushed up and whirled and set	G2
And again they swarmed after a shaft of sunlight	G2
And the dark blue dusk closed above him like an ocean of regret	G2
	-
White trident fires were lit on the tops of towers	W2
Monstrous and black the towers broke the sky	F
The ghostly fountain shot and tumbled in showers	W2
Gaunt leaves turned down above it thirstily	V2
The gold fish and the fish with fins of silver	D
Quivered in lamplight rose with sinister eye	F
And darted into the darkness silently	V2
	-
The faces that looked at him were his own fa	X2